Attention Hedgehogs!

you now have your own webpage, complete with Jokes

and an "adopt a hedgehog" link

headsup from cuteoverload...

Curing fatal hepatitis

Although we are reading about all those pseudoscientific studies that prayer either does or doesn't work (you know, the ones that assume that no one was praying for the control groups...hello...how could you presume that?) in the meanwhile, John Paul the Great was reported to be involved in this case of recovery from an unspecified liver infection...

Medically, it will probably be decided it was "spontaneous"...

Ah, but I have my own miracle story about hepatitis to tell...

when I was in Africa, we didn't have much to treat hepatitis...heck, we didn't even have a blood test to tell if it was hepatitis A, B, C,D, E, F, or G, or due to other infections...indeed, many probably were either toxic hepatitis, or complicated by toxic herbs given to cure people before they came in.

One day, a young boy arrived from Chibi...the roads to the nearest hospital had been landmined and closed, so it meant the family carried him on several buses for about 100 miles to get medical help.

He was about 13, and in a coma. Examination showed a deeply jaundiced boy poorly responsive to pain, and his total bilirubin was 30...full hepatic coma. He had been sick for a week.

About the only treatment for this back then was IV fluids for hydration, IV glucose and vitamins IV....which we did...
Two days later, he was still in a coma, and I told the family that chances of recovery were slim...

Now, I'm from the Mr. Spock theory of miracles...there is a famous StarTrek episode where the emotionless Mr. Spock illogically burned all the fuel from the transporter in a last ditch attempt to alert the Enterprize that they were there...when confronted with this illogical deed, Mr. Spock said, well all the logical things had been done, so I calculated that it was time to do something illogical...

Well, I pray but don't expect miracles...or rather, I figure that God expects us to help him with these things by giving us penicillin and neurosurgeons...but sometimes when nothing else works, then let's get a prayer service and see if the Big guy will work outside of the system...

Now, our area was largely Christian, but Chibi was mainly traditional religion...but after the much more pious nurses talked with them, the family agreed to have him baptized and hold a prayer service...

To my astonishment, the kid woke up the next day...

Wonder how I could write that one up for the New England Journal of medicine: Spontaneous remission of hepatic coma by headwashing?

Naah...just a coincidence....

Osama ben cat?

guess they never heard of these!

Headlines, we have headlines

Actually, most of this is merely comments on commentary.

Reason has an article on Why poor countries are poor....
Attention Gloria...
Well, it's not QUITE that bad here...

And Reason also has an article on the FBI screwups before 9-11...

from BoingBoing, for the most important news item of the day: No BoobJobs on Virgin...on their space flights, that is...

But don't fret...you can find help HERE for all your bosom needs...

The headlines on the local TV is about the Bahrain ferry capsizing...since many Filippino OFW's work there...
And yes, the US Navy was there to help...

And on the war on terror....well, bus bombs happen here too, but not quite as efficiently as in other places...and this is a story about rehabilitating ex guerillas...

And finally, don't throw out all those hair clippings LINK...
And, if you are bald, they can do it with your dog's hair...

Down, blackie, down, or I'll make you into a diamond...

Museum of Unworkable Devices

headsupFrom Ursi


Inventor reads by light powered by
electricity provided by the ceiling transducer of
a bouncing ball engine. He's wearing earplugs.

Headlines of the day

New site worth lookin at LINK

I see nothing has happened for the last five days... but will summarize the headlines I find interesting

Good News: Charles Taylor, whose civil war in Liberia resulted in a couple hundred thousand deaths and many atrocities has been arrested...
Bad news: He will be tried under UN aspices...the last murderous dictator who was tried by international law just died of old age after a long long trial...

Attention N.O.W.: the World is missing 200 million women...
The bad news is that 1.5-3 million women a year are missing because the abortion lobby rightly or wrongly thinks abortion gives choice to women (when, like infanticide in ancient Greece or China, it actually is performed at the demand of the husband/father--even here in the USA most abortions are because the boyfriend/husband/father either insists on it, or because the boyfriend/parents of the single woman deserts the woman and she cannot afford to support the child.) (headsup from LittleGreenFootballsblog)
Ah, but Political correctness is more important than reality...

Good News: The UN gives Iran 30 more days...
Bad news: What then? My comment: Probably send them a wery nasty letter (A la team america)..
After all, all Iran and other Islamofascists have to do is wait until 2009....guess they think Hillary is a wimp, like her husband...(don't they know that she will make Margaret Thatcher look like a wimp...)

Good news (?): New abortifactant type birth control pill might be released.
It's being touted as the best thing since sliced bread...because if you take it you not only won't get pregnant, but you won't get your period...
Bad news that no one is discussing: By blocking progesterone, you fail to get maturation of the endometrium...women who lack progesterone either from ovarian problems or because they take progesterone anatagonists for cancer etc. are more prone to endometrial cancer....and, of course, no news about little things like libido, vaginal dryness, osteoporosis, or problems with the adrenal gland...

Good News: Flight 93 will open the NY Film Festival...

bad news: Linsey Lohan is being touted as the next WonderWoman...Mark Umbach comments: "One just wonders what Carter would thing of Lohan filling her red, patent leather boots."

My comment: Actually, she can probably fill her boots: the big question is if she can fit her DDD sized blouse.

Finally, Test Tube meat...it's not just for science fiction anymore...

Family News

We are back at the farm. Electricity was put in today.
Party for one of the nephew's grandchildren...may post photos later...
we ran home today for one of Lolo's errands, and I keep the photos on my laptop.

At the grave site

After Mass, we again went slowly to the gravesite.

The casket was placed into an above ground concrete box, next to his father's grave. This is the newer cemetary, so has anopen roof, so family can visit in the shade.

Everyone was crying, and the relatives threw flowers into the grave as the casket was lowered.

At this point, I took Lolo home, since it was about 95 degrees...but later tonite we'll probably visit the family again.
He was one of eight siblings, 7 still alive, and had four kids.
And, as father said in the funeral Mass, what makes this worse was that it was a senseless killing by one who has no love of life...but for us, God sees our lives as meaningful, and we are loved. God was with him at his death, and we will join Ito and our other deceased family members in the next life. 

Mass at Three Kings church

At church we had a mass. Family was in front, but since we were in the car we arrived last...
This is the main church in town, Three Kings parish.
Being the Philippines, the windows and doors were open the birds were singing..
There is a psalm that says the birds find a nest in your alters...so it is appropriate.
And birds are a sign of the resurrection. 

Funeral hearse

They took the casket from the home to the old fashioned horse drawn hearse...and everyone followed it on foot to the church...we followed them in a car, since Lolo is 81 years 

Family saying goodbye

 

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Dr. Ito's funeral was today

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Fish/Omega 3: to eat or not to eat?

Latest discussion about fish oil...as usual, studies contradict each other...

And if you scroll down, you will find a sardine recipe.

And if you are into bleeding host miracles, I have a discussion of that on my screedblog...

Finally, some German scientist have found another place to harvest stem cells that are almost identical to embryonic stem cells...guess where?

ARE YOU AN IDIOT?

take the test and find out....

It even includes a link to send a copy to your favorite politician....Hello, Garci...

headsup From Ursi

Whatever you do

Don't piss off the white guys.

PandAdventure!

via Ursi

Scuba Kitten!

Airline jokes

Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance enginee

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last..................

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

United 93 trailer is now on line

Webpage HERE

is also quite interesting/sad...has photos from the movie...

And check out comment 12 on the Free Republic discussion of the movie...it's by a family member.

No ID? Yes, they will let you fly

BoingBoing links to this survey showing that people who forget to bring a government issued ID are still able to fly...

Been there...done that. Especially in these days of E tickets, it's easy to forget your ID.

Two years ago, we flew from Tulsa to Chicago...half an hour from the Tulsa airport, I had Lolo check his wallet, and found he had left his wallet home...there was no time to drive back home to fetch it.

So airport security laughed and merely put him and his bags thru the full search...of course, I vouched for him and his e ticket was purchased under my own name.

An interesting aside is that our Oklahoma driver's license now has a fingerprint digitally scanned on it...

For your Lenten season enjoyment

the Curtjestor suggests you buy a Hareshirt for Lent...and Dumboxblog has other suggestions...

Family News update

Felix has arrived from Conneticut.
Funeral Sunday morning at 9 pm
Helen is holding up so far....very sad. I am making sure Lolo doesn't stay there too long: It is the hot season, and I worry about his health.
They have Ito's photos there, when he was a kid and with his family...a big photo of him on Lolo's old motorcycle...
Many many people visiting with condolences last night. The local deacon from the charismatic group came over to give some prayers. Many people came with food gifts for the family and visitors. Flowers all over the house.

One of the local Philippine papers has published a composite of the murderers...one is a well known contract killer who used to be in the NPA before he realized killing for money rather than ideology is more profitable...sad...

As f0r us, there is a meeting in our business center today, so busy at home too...

YUM....take two

The Good news: Marmite now comes in a SQUEEZE BOTTLE

The Bad News: It still tastes the same.

The Good News: The Marmite WikiPage says that it prevents mosquito bites
the reasoning being that the skin gives off a scent, unnoticeable to humans, but which mosquitos find unappealing...

The Bad News: You have to eat it.

A Marmite spokesman said: "You either love it or hate it and mosquitoes are clearly not in the former category."

YUM

Squid flavoured chocolate...

The Ultimate 20th Century invention: TA DA

And for the 20 most important inventions of all time, see list

HERE.

and HERE is link for the Ducktapeclub...

And for your reading assignment, DUCTAPE THRU HISTORY

And LINK is download for a ductape screensaver.

Slow news day

Lots of nonsense in the headlines....so I will summarize them so you don't have to wade thru GoogleNews.

Good news: Hostages freed...unlike many "anti war" groups which are actually only anti American, this group is pacifist...for example, they also have teams in Burundi, and Canada...(The Canada teams sound like a joke: but actually they are helping the indigenous from exploitation)...but not, alas, in Sudan...

Bad News: the easter bunny has been banned...and next on the list, Pipe Organs...

Good news: Swindler caught.
Bad news: NYTimes admit they didn't check out her colourful and false tale before printing it...

Good News: Ridicule works as a weapon against terror.
Bad News: Ridicule not only will get your entire country boycotted, but will lead to certain actors to quit in protest.
Good news: SouthPark fans might boycott MI3...if this succeeds, we will be spared MI4...

And note to Walgreens: Patients who are bipolar anxious depressed paranoid psychotics tend to get angry if you call them crazy...try using abbreviations like we docs do. The scariest part of the story: Patient claims she had a "secret clearance at work"...
Gee, that really makes me feel secure about the FBI ability to do security checks...

Casket is open but photo didn't take...
flowers all over the place... 

Doy and friends

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Chona and friend

 

Lolo and Emy

 

Family news update

Chona, Danny, Emy and Doy have arrived...a few more relatives are due to arrive today.
No funeral set yet, but we are guessing it will be on Sunday afternoon...

Very sad. Lots of flowers and visitors...Dr. Ito was popular not only among his family and collegues but with his farmers and neighbors.

Get a good night's sleep

Or you, too, could become extinct...

How scientists can discover this, I don't know...maybe they asked their mothers...

Who decides what docs do?

Comments on government's role in telling docs how to practice medicine...

This being the pro euthanasia NEJM, the well known pro euthanasia activist/ethicist does bitch about not letting docs kill patients, but the rest of the article is interesting and I will do an essay on my screedblog later....

the good news: Tofu, Oatmeal lower cholesterol

Bad news: As Danebramage observes: Cholesterol remains high as no one eats tofu and oatmeal...

Perks of being over 50

PERKS OF BEING OVER 50

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.

3. No one expects you to run--anywhere.

4. People call at 9 pmand ask, " Did I wake you?"

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

7. Things you buy now won't wear out.

8. You can eat dinner at 4 pm.

9. You can live without sex but not your glasses.

10. You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.

11. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

12. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

13. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walksinto the room.

14. You sing along with elevator music.

15. Your eyes won't get much worse.

16. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

17. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

18. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.

19. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.

20. You can't remember who sent you this list.

Notice these are all in Big Print for your convenience.

(Email of the day from Col.Thermal Updraft)

Bookhead

Remember how you were told that walking with a book on your head would improve your posture?

Manolo says, It is cheating if you strap the book to your head.
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ummm fellows....look up "persistent" in the dictionary...

To diagnose "persistent vegetative state", it has to be PERSISTENT...i.e. no improvement over a three to six month period...

Readers of Michelle Malkin are familiar with this case, a young girl tortured by her adoptive mother and step father...and social services did not intervene until she was brought into the hospital in a coma...then the same social service organization pressured the courts to remove her life support prematurely...

This comment says it all:

''Child protection service does not exist in a vacuum," said Christine Ferguson, the state's former public health commissioner, who led the three-member panel. ''Haleigh's case represents a frightening confluence of a healthcare system ignorant of abuse and a child-protection system ignorant of medicine."

Bill Murray's sister is a sister

and an actress...who wuddathot?

Family News update

LINK2

Helen is still in shock. They are holding the viewing at their home. We are waiting for all the relatives to arrive to hold the funeral. Emy, Danny, and Doy arrive on various flights tonite.

The home has many many flowers, donated by friends and collegues of the family. Lolo is still sad. He was there last night (I stayed home) and today for two hours this morning (I went and said the rosary for his soul)...

The two sons of the intended victim are being buried this afternoon...big funeral...and the intended victim is hiding out until they find who is behind the shooting...we figure our relative was only in the way...indeed, the wound--single bullet wound (causing a basilar skull fracture with hemorrhage into the brainstem but no exit wound) suggests it might have been a richochet rather than a direct hit by a high powered rifle or a 45...like the other dead. However, we are still awaiting the official report...and suspect list...

Video link for today

Stuff to read by guys who write better than little old me

Hitchens imagines what would have happened if the UN had actually followed through on it's resolutions that Sadam Hussein live up to the treaties signed ten years earlier...

Volokh Conspiracy discusses the nexis of international law and the US constitution, and the theory that we should be held to "higher" standards of treaties and UN decisions that we did not even sign...one example is freedom of speech being trumped by the UN laws on "hate speech" such as anti Islamic cartoons...

PinoyAmerican Michelle Malkin has her knickers in a knot about freedom of religion...namely, an Afghan who might be executed for converting to Christianity...heck, Michelle, it's a slippery slope. Let some guy convert, and soon you might have the Saudis allowing their Philippino maids to say the rosary, or (shudder) even allowing gays to exist without fear of execution in Iran...

CHESTER discusses the battle of Fallujah and how the press tried to make it into Tet Redux

FIREFOX 2 is coming...wonder if it will eat my bookmarks like earlier Firefoxes....as for Internet explorer7...I like the tabs, but the toolbar is confusing, and I won't use it because every new window insists that I use Windows firewall, when I prefer my Norton firewall...and I can't figure how to turn the damn reminder bar off...

Dave Barry warns Canada that she's next...

and Ursi has a link to the timewaster of the day...but do it quick...you see, it's all a Conspiracy to brainwash you, and will probably be outlawed by the UN Hate crimes treaty...

Belated Happy St. Patricks day

You're 75% Irish

You're very Irish, and most likely from Ireland. (And if you're not, you should be!)

How Irish Are You?

Your puppy photo of the day

from grouchyoldcripple.com

Alphabet for those over 50

Email from Colonel Thermal Updraft:

The New Alphabet

*
A is for Apple, and B is for Boat,
That used to be right, But now it won't float!
Age before Beauty is what we once said,
But let's be a bit more realistic instead.
Now:

*
A's for arthritis;
B's the bad back,
C is the chest pains, perhaps car-d-iac?
D is for dental decay and decline,
E is for eyesight, can't read that top line!
F is for fissures and fluid retention,
G is for gas which I'd rather not mention.
H is high blood pressure--I'd rather it low;
I for incisions with scars you can show.
J is for joints, out of socket, won't mend,
K is for knees that crack when they bend.
L for libido, what happened to sex?
M is for memory, I forget ! what comes next
N is neuralgia, in nerves way down low;
O is for osteo, the bones that don't grow!
P for prescription's, I have quite a few, just
give me a pill and I'll be good as new!
Q is for queasy, is it fatal or flu?
R for reflux, one meal turns to two.
S for sleepless nights, counting my fears,
T for Tinnitus; there's bells in my ears!
U is for urinary; big troubles with flow;
V is for vertigo, that's "dizzy," you know.
W is for worry, NOW what's going 'round?
X is for X ray, and what might be found.
Y is another year I'm left here behind,
Z is for zest that I still have-- in my mind.


I've survived all the symptoms, my body's deployed,
And I am keeping twenty-six 'doctors' fully employed!!!

Carnival of the recipes

Email hoax about Philippines

My stepson just got an email from someone in his cult claiming Art Bell was sending hate letters email to people criticizing the Philippines in a racist way...

It sounded fishy to me, since Art is semi retired now and isn't the type to send such emails...so I checked and it is an urban legend.

Nephew killed (take three)

LINK2

Ito is the one sitting next to Lolo.

Our nephew was a farmer, and we saw him the day before he was killed out supervising the harvest of rice...

He raises fighting cocks. Cockfighting is his passion. It's a man thing: Gambling, friendship, and the excitement of the fight.

The cockpit (cockfighting arena) was newly built here by a businessman, and there had been rumors of problems in the business deal. My nephew was not involved in this, merely caught in the crossfire because he was talking with the owner's sons when the killers arrived. The wrong place at the wrong time...

Usually this is a contract killing, done by the NPA, but we may never know the truth. After the killing, rumors of thirty killed or injured by twenty gunmen was rampant, but then the report was two vans left, so of course rumors got larger with the telling.

My nephew was transfered to the next town to a neurosurgeon, but the CT scan showed extensive brain damage from a headwound, and said no surgery would help, so he died there and his body was brought back here last night.

His wife works short locum jobs in the US as a nurse, and was on the plane returning here when this happened. So his sisters arranged the body to be embalmed and placed in the home until the funeral. The rest of the relatives are arriving as soon as they can get flights from the US and England. Sad for all of them. This is the second brother to die: his older brother died of a heart attack ten years ago. (sudden cardiac death runs in the family).

So the body is laid out, and family/neighbors are there...Helen the wife is distraught and in shock. Lolo couldn't sleep last night. We visited this morning, and I left him there while we brought our stuff back from the farm. Then I insisted he come home, and put him to bed. We don't need him having a stroke on top of everything else.

The one killed is one of his brother's sons.
When my husband's brother died of a heart attack and left the five kids, my husband had to go to the USA to support the extended family. So he is their "father" in many ways, even though he only sees them on holidays.

It's going to be a long week.

poem LINK
In the midst of life we are in death...

Family news Update and correction

five killed...thirty injured...

intended victim may have gotten away..

Our relative's body is at the funeral home, and viewing in his home...his wife was flying home and will be contacted at the airport with the sad news.

Family news

One of Lolo's nephews, Ito, was killed. He was at a cockfight with his rooster, and some people shot up the ring, and he was caught in the crossfire.

Prayers for the family will be appreciated.

Family news

We are still at the farm...it is hot season so we are taking up a spare airconditioner.

No electricity, but we have a generator.

This is called "Roughing it"...(not).

Must be a blue moon out there

NYTimes apologizes for being scammed by a liar...

However, as Instapundit and others note, they haven't bothered to wonder if a person who tells one lie might be exaggerating (AKA Lying) about other things too...

And the saddest admission is this one: "The Times should have been more persistent in seeking comment from the military. A more thorough examination of previous articles in The Times and other newspapers would have shown that in 2004 military investigators named another man as the one on the box, raising suspicions about Mr. Qaissi's claim..."

Guess they never heard of google...or Nexus Lexus...or that old fashioned idea, fact checkers of past issues of your old newspaper...
---------------------------------------------------------
Psst....maybe they could send a couple reporters to check out these secret papers...LINK

Nahh, the NYT headlines are about our soldiers abusing prisoners, as usual...and about the anti war protests, which if you actually read the article instead of the headline, are tiny...

Heck, even in Paris they are more interested in protesting the latest government policy than the war LINK

Gaypatriot was NOT impressed...

"Meantime, poor PatriotPartner is in San Francisco for work this weekend and is surrounded by thousands of moonbats. He reports the crowds look larger than they really are because they are all walking in a circle. He’s seen the same signs twice in less than an hour. He also says the protestors haven’t seen the inside of a shower in about a week, and are mainly comprised of senior “Sixtian” hippies.

And he also agrees with ATG’s observation:" this is mostly an anti-American, anti-Bush protest…. not a anti-war protest. Of course, it is being run by the last vestige of Communism on earth — A.N.S.W.E.R. — so what else would you expect?"

Manolo loves sandals

Manolo rightly went ecstatic about these sandals...

But it says something about the world when the price of upscale sandals could hire one of our maids for six months.

Ah, but you CAN compare apples and oranges

Home, home on the farm

We have moved to the chicken farm for a few weeks, til our house gets the roof fixed.

No chickens on the farm right now. Too hot.

Except for wall to wall ants, it's quiet and except for being robbed etc. by the local bad boys we're safe.

Emerging Biotechnology

No comments from me. I'm merely linking it to download and read later.

The Pres' bioethics book is on line, but I bought it and it gives a similar background, as does some other books I have in my library.

Actually, I brought about half my bioethics books here. To send overseas, you send them M Bag, and it costs about a dollar a pound..and takes three months.

Your cute photo of the day

and lots of other beautiful photos on her blog.

Family news update

We stayed at the farm and will be staying there for a few days, at least until they get the roof fixed in our Gapan house, so blogging will be light.

The Ten Commandments

Col. Thermal Updraft sent this email.

NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT.

How Moses got the 10 Commandments....
God went to the Arabs and said, "I have Commandmentsfor you that will make your lives better.
The Arabs asked, "What are Commandments?"And the Lord said, "They are rules for living.""Can you give us an example?""Thou shall not kill.""Not kill? We're not interested."
He went to the Blacks and said, "I have Commandments."The Blacks wanted an example, and the Lord said, "Honor thy Father and Mother." "Father? We don't know who our fathers are."
Then He went to the Mexicans and said, "I have Commandments." The Mexicans also wanted an example, and the Lord said "Thou shall not steal." "Not steal? We're not interested."
Then He went to the French and said, "I have Commandments." The French too wanted an example and the Lord said, "Thou shall not commit adultery." "Not commit adultery? We're not interested."
Finally, He went to the Jews and said, "I have Commandments." "Commandments?" They said, "How much are they?" "They're free." "Free? We'll take 10."

Well, that should insult about everybody.

Human rights report (Philippines)

Philippine commentary comments HERE

Don't ask me, I rarely leave the house...but a relative says that in a nearby province, that the NPA is getting stronger, and those who support the NPA have been found dead.

This sounds like what goes on in Colombia, where my adopted son's half sister's husband, who had ties with FARC when he was young, was found killed...

However, both countries are in fairly good shape next to Zimbabwe..where human rights are ignored if the government wants to do something....and even that country is far from the worst in Africa, since it at least has a government, with some police, schooling, and food distribution to the poor, and not anarchy/civil war and epidemics.

Nothing like living thru a few wars and anarchy to make one think the evilhitlerbushy people are nuts.

Family news

Well, we have a small house on the farm, so we had a bed and a sofa/chair set taken up.

We cleaned again and killed about a thousand ants, who seem determined to rebuild their nest.

All we need now is electricity. We will probably use the small generator.

We came home for lunch, and there was a sudden thunderstorm. This is unusual, since it's the dry season. Alas, they are constructing a second floor walkway near the roof, so all the water poured thru the eaves into the bedroom and kitchen. What a mess...

Homer Simpson alert

LINK2

Hamster shot of the day for Alice

And if you like Hamsters, check this out:

Lucy the Hamster has her own webpage...

complete with WEBCAM

and instructions for a parsley treat:

Wash apple and some fresh parsley
Cut out a piece of apple, preferably dice shaped. And don't use a large knife! like I did. Ask help if you're under 40!
Use a toothpick to punch a small hole in the apple
Place parsley in the just made hole
Serve immediately! (So the apple is still fresh)"

Latkes Versus Hamantaschen

At MIT, Scientific experiments were done to prove the superiority of Latkes over Hamantaschen:

"...In a recent experiment, Robison proved the property of enhanced transmission of musical sound through hamantaschen.

“I lured unsuspecting grad students to my room with promises of a lucrative UROP,” Robison admitted. Ordinary foam ear pads were replaced with two latkes or two hamantaschen, and Oreos and buttermilk pancakes served as controls. Latkes were unanimously preferred, as the hamantaschen caused “pastry crumbs and poppy seed bits to bounce around inside the subject’s ear canal.” ..."

(heads up from FreeRepublic)

Bunnies on Brokeback

headsup Via Ragemonkey

Internet Trivia

There is a website called echeat...
it has essays for college students to copy.

To Kill a mockingbird

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but ... sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A Pinokie Prez?

Ragemonkey writes that one of his parishioners is returning to his native Philippines to -- get this! -- run for President of the Philippines in 2007...
LINK to webpage
LINK to PBS

For those of you not familiar with flyover country, an Okie is a person from Oklahoma
And a Pinoy is a Filippino.

Ruby

the wall of our house is to the right. Our street has been paved for about ten years, since it is a "short cut" to the main street on busy days. 

Lolo, Ito and nephews

the photo is inside our hall...

THE place is finally finished.

Chano uses it for religoius conferences, dinners, meetings, etc.

For Lolo's birthday, I told him if the prayer lasted more than five minutes, I'd walk out...

It lasted three minutes, and all the relatives were grateful.

Lolo's birthday

Not bad for age 81 

Decorating for the party

Lolo's 81st birthday party

This is Marie, helping to decorate.

And the cooks in the partially finished kitchen.

Bounceometer

I kid you not...

Not workplace friendly...

Eva Longoria take two

... no one makes drop-dead Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria happier than her older sister Elizabeth, born mentally disabled 37 years ago with Down's syndrome.....

"Whatever I do, Elizabeth is proud of me. Hers is the first face I want to see when I go home. She's just the most special, inspirational person."

Eva plays spoiled adulteress Gabrielle Solis in the hit Channel 4 TV series, where she has an affair with gardener John Rowland, played by Jesse Metcalfe.

Roboclaw!

Timewaster of the day from Ursi

Barbie Fairytopia!

It was bad enough for me to watch the DVD thirty five times with a five year old granddaughter....

and now, it's on stage.

Well, if it helps her to get thru menopause, I'm all for it...

Impersonal killing

Video game skills and war.

Lost in Translation

Chinese menu translation seems to have a few problems...
(more at link)
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The Dark Night of Fascism

Lawyer Eugene Volokh out of curiosity traced down the quote: "dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe," to Tom Wolfe's conversation with some american intellectuals in the 1960's.

(Grass commented): "For the past hour, I have my eyes fixed on the doors here," he said. "You talk about fascism and police repression. In Germany when I was a student, they come through those doors long ago. Here they must be very slow."...
He was not simply saying, "You really don't have so much to worry about." He was indulging his sense of the absurd. He was saying: "You American intellectuals — you want so desperately to feel besieged and persecuted!"
He sounded like Jean-François Revel, a French socialist writer who talks about one of the great unexplained phenomena of modern astronomy: namely, that the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.

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Desperate Housewives one, Jack Bauer zero

I should have seen it coming...there is a blogspot called blogs4Bauer, and a Carnival of Bauer...

Did you know Eva Longoria could outshoot JackBauer?

Like most Texans (and Okies), her family hunted for food, not for the thrill of killing Bambi.

Lumpia recipe

EnglishPatisBlog has a lumpia recipe.
Lupia is the Filippino version of what in the US we call "egg roles"...but egg roles are fried, and our egg rolls may or may not be fried. (this recipe is not).

Lolo and his first Jeep

 

Family news update

The water is out again.

It's Lolo's 81st birthday, and the party is tonite...photos later.

We're in the middle of the winter/dry season rice harvest

Headlines of the day you might have missed

(some rewritten for clarity)

Lobster discovered...looks like Sharon Stone.
and speaking of lobsters:

the so called giant freshwater lobster is actually giant and lives in freshwater.
(I'm glad they cleared that one up)

2.7 million dollars donated to GW Heart Center
(evil Cheney strikes again)

The Russians are coming! the Russians are Coming!

well, Borachay is a bit warmer than Vladavostok in December...and Gloria is prettier than Putin...

Clinton: "Palestinians elected Hamas because they promised to make the buses run on time,"

hmm...didn't they used to say that about Mussolini?

But things are not as bad as they used to be:

Before Islam, the Arabs fought for 40 years to defend the honor of a female camel.
See. It's not Islam that's crazy, it's the Arabs...

US Military Desertion rates fell since Sept 11...
but if you wouldn't know it from the original headline

AMA Poll: Drunken sexual escapades at spring break leads to drunkeness and sex...
glad they noticed. Next they'll discover falling down causes bruises, or smoking causes nicotene addiction

And speaking of addiction:
Terrorism is merely an addiction can be cured.
Deprogram terrorists and they'll turn into Mr. Rogers...

Ah, but will they still be able to fly kites when they are cured?

Don't fly that kite
if you make kites illegal, only terrorists will have kites.

and remember, just because a country is part of the axis of evil doesn't mean it doesn't have these awardwinning songs:

A new idea for a Madonna video
Song of the Coast Artillarywoman

Well, it beats songs crying for a pimp..

Media reports only one side...what else is new?

Smith notes that media (including the pro death NEJM) always reports only one side on euthanasia...in this case, infanticide...

More on screedblog...
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Jody Bottum at FirstThings predicts a media blitz to promote euthanasia in the near future, despite many setbacks...and the AMA backtrack on protecting life will help things along (PDF HERE) the key word in the AMA document is "dignity": like the word "choice", it is a stealth word to push an idea. After all, who wants to be undignified?
Dignity is the code word for killing someone whose life is "Undignified"...you know, "Untermensch", the sick, the senile, the retarded...
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Update 2: Smith has an article on NR about the demise of the Hippocratic Oath.
The point about "stewardship of resources" is important, since the idea long pushed by Callahan and others is that we need to legally stop people from wasting resources on the most vulnerable...and of course, euthanasia is a lot cheaper than chemotherapy.

24: The Musical

Manolo summarizes Oscar Night

Can anybody remember an Oscar ceremony when Salma Hayek's breasts weren't the high point of the evening?
And he has the links to prove it....
Down, Fred, Down...take your blood pressure medicine before you read it...

Danish recipes at Carnival of the Recipes

When doctors need information in the middle of nowhere

PLOS has lots of journal articles...

Biomed Central ditto

via BoingBoing, which discusses using technology so isolated African clinics can have loads of books on their computers...

Fine. Now, you are a doctor, the ONLY doctor at a 100 plus bed hospital...That serves 20 000 people in a rural area...

Problem: Docs are too busy to look the stuff up and read it...Although if it had a friendly search engine and you had a problem case it would come in handy...

What you need are journals like American Family Physician, and basic books such as DePalma's How to set every fracture known to mankind were big helps, as were some surgery and OB books that showed you techniques for procedures when you got into trouble and something weird happened...

and from what I've read of some of the books on the boingboing article, they are really good reference books for isolated third world docs.

But sometimes an emergency problem pops up, and you're not sure where to find the solution quickly... You are too busy to look up what to do.....And in those cases it is sometimes easier just to call someone who knows more than you do...

When I was in Africa, we had a lady whose baby died in utero at 28 weeks...

She had had one caesarian section, so when a careful induction did not expel the fetus, we decided to remove the baby via C section (prolonged carrying a dead fetus can lead to problems...hypofibrinogenemia with bleeding from everything, for example..also infection...).

So we opened her abdomen to remove the dead baby, and....when I went in, as soon as we entered the abdominal cavity we found the baby...not in the uterus but in the Abdomen...

Now, that was a problem not in any textbook...you see, she had had a Caesarian section at another hospital where the doc only did Classical, upper uterine, incisions...We had had two of them rupture during trials of labour, and when we did a CSection electively on another one of his patients, we found that the uterus was held together by an inch wide thin band of scar tissue: The muscle had not healed together...

So the best we can figure what happened for our lady with the baby in the belly was that the pregnancy had started to grow in the uterus, but with stretching, the scar had opened, and the baby popped out, and grew outside the uters...

Alas, so had the placenta: it was attached to the uterus, the intestines, the uterine artery, the abdominal wall etc...

Now, placenta that attach are full of blood vessels, and the place they attach to are also full of blood vessels. In the uterus, when the placenta comes out, the uterus contracts and squeezes all these blood vessels down (and when it doesn't, the mom bleeds to death)...But here, we couldn't remove the placenta without causing uncontrollable bleeding...And the placenta was starting to deteriorate...it was brown and lifeless, meaning that it could cause massive infection/peritonitis and kill the mother...

Now this is not a problem we see often, and it was NOT in my book...so I called the Sister Doc at the next hospital, a locally trained physician who had more local experience than I did...

"WHAT DO I DO?" I asked frantically...

"Oh, no problem", she replied. She had seen a similar case in training, and was blase about the whole thing...

"Just remove as much as you can if it comes out easily, and leave the rest behind...then close her (the abdominal incision) up and give lots of antibiotics and PRAY..."

So we did...and the patient did fine....

They say God watches out for drunks and kids...he also watches out for inexperienced naive docs who see problems not in the textbooks...

And maybe, just maybe, the prayers helped too...

Hup! Two! Three! Four! Left fin, right fin, ho ho ho

(From Improbable research.)... coffee spewing alert...

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Improbable also have a link to a professor who gives a course in weird Science...PDF of articles HERE
Includes articles on the biology of love, and calculating the population of monsters in Loch Ness...

Why Texan horror movies are so short

Don't mess with Texas...

Goosefeathers

(Headsup from Medpundit, of all places)

For $22.79, you too can dress your lawn goose in proper scrubs...
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Spread Racial tolorance

The link is to an Australian blog which has a short film on how Aussies can increase interracial tolorance with their Muslim brothers...

PUT COFFEE DOWN FIRST /not work friendly alert...

Origami Nazgul

Live and in person: the Simpsons

also from DaveBarryBlog

Puppy curling

Your timewaster of the day from Dave Barry...

I'll drink to that: one PanGalactic Gargle Blaster Please

Holy zarquon, you're Ford Prefect! Traveling the

galaxy is just another day in your book, man.

You live for the thrill and the nightlife,

although you've got an issue with caring for

others. Everyone likes you, though, because

of your party-going personality. I sass that

hoopy Ford Prefect! Rock on, man!


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